Laser-induced periodic surface structures as optical resonators for organic thin-film distributed feedback lasers

Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) and Institute of Applied Physics, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany

^* e-mail: tiange.dong@mailbox.tu-dresden.de
^** e-mail: karl.leo@tu-dresden.de

Published online: 18 October 2023

Abstract

Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) have received considerable attention due to their potential for micro-and nanostructuring and surface functionalization of various materials. We present a novel application of LIPSS on a glass substrate as distributed feedback (DFB) laser resonators, capable of providing sufficient positive optical feedback to achieve lasing in thin-film waveguides with organic small molecules as a gain medium. The direct femtosecond micromachining allows for easy variation of the periodicity across a broad range of values, including those required to reach 1st Bragg order DFB operation. We investigate several small molecule organic thin-film systems and observe lasing in strong accordance with the underlying periodicities of all photonic structures involved. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of LIPSS as DFB laser resonators and suggest that they could facilitate the integration of organic thin-film media-based lasers and other photonic devices into various integrated photonic systems.